The House leaders will urge the president to solve the problems related to the local elections in a comprehensive and complete manner.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - House leaders are scheduled to meet President Joko Widodo on Wednesday (August 5) at the Bogor Palace to discuss various issues, including the local elections.

"A consultation meeting will be held between President Joko Widodo and the House leaders on Wednesday (August 5) at the Bogor Palace to discuss the state speech, financial memorandum, and local elections," Vice Chairman of the House of Representatives Fahri Hamzah remarked here on Tuesday.

The House leaders will urge the president to solve the problems related to the local elections in a comprehensive and complete manner.

Hamzah stated that the House leaders are concerned about the votes of PPP and Golkar that have been rejected by the General Elections Commissions (KPU).

"If there are improvements, we urge the president to arrive at a fair decision," Hamzah remarked.

Hamzah stated that a government regulation in lieu of the law (Perppu) is not an ideal instrument to formulate a law as it based on a short-term thought process.

"Therefore, the local elections law resulted in the surfacing of problems, which appeared one by one," he pointed out.

"We see imperfections and injustice, and so, the Perppu cannot solve the problems related to the local elections," he stated.

Earlier, the registration process for regional head candidates taking place in 269 regions across Indonesia on July 26-28, 2015, has run well, in general, KPU Chairman Husni Kamil Manik stated.

"In general, it has run well," Manik informed the press here, early Wednesday.

All the 12 existing political parties including the Golkar and PPP, which are still facing internal rivalries, have submitted the names of their candidates, he added.

However, he pointed out that an incident had occurred in Manggarai District, East Nusa Tenggara Province, in which a mob had forced the local election commission office to accept the registration of a certain pair of candidates although they came late.

Until Wednesday (July 29), at midnight Western Indonesian Standard Time (WIB), the KPU had received 705 pairs of candidates contesting in the regional head elections. Of the total, 576 tickets are supported by political parties, and 129 tickets are independent candidates.

Of the total candidates, 650 are men and 55 are women.

However, this data is subject to change, he noted.

Besides this, 12 of the total 269 regions, which are scheduled to organize the simultaneous regional head elections, have only one ticket or none at all.

"The 12 regions are Asahan District in North Sumatra; Serang District in Banten; Tasikmalaya District in West Java; Surabaya Municipality and Blitar District in East Java; Purbalingga District in Central Java; Pacitan District in East Java; South Minahasa District in North Sulawesi; Mataram city, Samarinda city, and Timur Tengah Utara District in East Nusa Tenggara; and East Bolaang Mongondow District in North Sulawesi," KPU Senior Commissioner Ferry Kurnia revealed.

Based on KPUs regulations, politicians need to be nominated by a party, or a coalition of parties, that controls at least 20 percent of the seats in the regional council or 25 percent of the valid votes in the 2014 regional election.

Political candidates must also obtain approval from the central board of their political party, whereas during the previous elections, they only needed the approval of the regional board.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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